Let Others Rise to Take Our Place
by Camberleigh Fauconbridge
Summary: Once, when Éponine had been looking for Marius and he was not at the café, she noticed that Enjolras' vest made his white shirt look as if it were stained with blood. *Twenty-five drabbles about the "relationship" between Éponine and Enjolras. Oneshot.*


**So, these are twenty-five drabbles about the "relationship" between Enjolras and Éponine. As always, I'm using the 25th Anniversary cast in my mind for this.**

_Let Other Rise to Take Our Place_

1. Rain

It was funny, really, how they both used rain as a way to escape their inner demons— him, the voice telling him that the revolution will never succeed; and her, that Marius would not return her love.

2. Blood

Once, when Éponine had been looking for Marius and he was not at the café, she noticed that Enjolras' vest made his white shirt look as if it were stained with blood.

3. Dance

With some things, they were complete opposites: sometimes, when she was alone, Éponine danced with nobody, pretending she danced with Marius; you would have to kill Enjolras before he went into a ballroom.

4. Tears

Sometimes Éponine cried herself to sleep, because Marius was going to join the revolution and he was going to be killed, the fool— _all_ of them would be killed— and then— _he_ would be killed (she didn't like to admit that Marius wasn't the only student she would grieve).

5. Rage

Enjolras liked to think that he could keep his head and didn't get angry very often; in truth, rage would flare quickly (but silently) when Éponine was hurt by Marius.

6. Flags

Once, on Bastille Day, when everyone except Enjolras had too much drink, Éponine said that she loved the sight of the thousands of French flags lining the streets; Enjolras was half disgusted by himself by remembering what she said for a long time after that day.

7. Height

She is taller that most of the proper, bourgeoisie women— almost as tall as him, now that he thinks about it— and most likely taller than Marius' beloved; Éponine despairs over her height because of the latter fact, mainly, but Enjolras secretly doesn't mind, because it is another part of Éponine that sets her apart from the rest.

8. Wish

They're both satisfied with what life has given them so far, for the most part; except they aren't, not really, and they both half wish that things could be even the slightest bit different.

9. Question

It is a question that has never been asked: "What do you think of me?"

10. Apollo

She seems him as she climbs the barricade, him looking like one of those Greek or Roman or whatever kind of ancient gods that Marius once mentioned, and she thinks: _why did I fall in love with Marius— what not Enjolras?_

11. Circles

They circle around each other, the gamine and the Republican, neither wanting to be the first to reach out, until one day, quite by accident, they met in the center.

12. Wonder

Éponine wonders what life would be like if she had met Enjolras that day, instead of Marius.

13. Moments

Every moment Éponine gets closer to the barricade, it is another moment away from her parents, away from the customers, away from the hunger— and closer to Enjolras.

14. Listening

Without revealing that he is doing so, Enjolras sits a few tables away from Marius and Éponine, pretends to read, and listens to Éponine argue with Marius about what differences in class really meant (Enjolras tried not to think about how she was not-so-subtly comparing herself to Marius' beloved, and how she was trying to elevate herself in Marius' eyes).

15. Conversations

It used to be that when she was with a man in some flea-covered mattress, Éponine would distract herself by thinking about talking to Marius (and no, she did not picture— _being_ with Marius, he was too good for that); but now, when a man was pressing her against the rough brick of an alley wall, she thought of the conversation she had with Enjolras, the one that lasted all of five seconds (it was better that not speaking to him once, anyway).

16. Study

Once, when Éponine was following Marius out of the café, Grantaire convinced her to take a small glass of wine, which she drank and carelessly set the glass on the nearest table; later, Enjolras told everyone he was hanging back to study notes, but he really studied that smudges her fingertips had left on the glass.

17. Bullets

The bullet casings making a line down his vest, glinting in the torchlight, seems to mock her; they were ordered, expensive and attractive— everything her life was not.

18. Ridicule

Enjolras doesn't ridicule Éponine when she makes a mistake (her father and Montparnasse do it all the time, even Marius does it occasionally, though he is usually teasing, but it still doesn't make her feel good about it); thankfully, Enjolras just isn't the type.

19. Handwriting

Once, in an rare case of carelessness, Enjolras forgot a page of handwritten notes in the café; Éponine went back later and read them, because if she could somehow understand what he was writing about (and it didn't help that she looked at his handwriting, not his words, for a whole minute), then she could join one of the debates and talk to him for the first time since they met.

20. Targets

On one of the week-long breaks during the semesters, Enjolras is dragged by the majority of his friends out to the countryside to spend a day shooting, and surprising Éponine asks if she can join them; she tries to handle a gun, but she is so _very very_ bad that he has to hide a smile (her first shot blew an entire portion of the target's edge into the air).

21. Singing

Enjolras sometimes hears Éponine singing quietly, when she means for no one to hear her; her voice is decent at best, but the fact that it is _her voice_ that makes it sweeter.

22. Opera

He once considered buying her ticket to an opera; she would have to wash that dirt off her skin and find a proper dress— and he never, ever did this sort of thing— but he heard her mentioned something about one of the cheap plays Gavroche once got her a ticket to, and he thought she might like it (he never did buy the tickets, though).

23. Spite

The first time she went with Marius to the meetings, it was to spite Montparnasse; one she got there, however, she met someone she never expected to encounter— a twenty-six-year-old young man known as Enjolras.

24. Jealously

The first time Enjolras heard Éponine offhandedly mention something about a customer, it felt like a dagger was repeatedly being thrust into his chest, because she deserved better, because the men undoubtedly hurt her, because, well— it was _Éponine_; over time, he tried his best to ignore the fact that he minded, he minded very much, that Éponine was being hurt.

25. Betrayal

Enjolras never considered betraying France (a revolt against a corrupt monarchy was, after all, an attempt to _help_ France, not hurt her)— and since Éponine was part of France, he wasn't betraying anything by noticing her.


End file.
